Institute of National Remembrance and Institute of Political Studies (Polish Academy of Sciences) organized the international conference on 27-28 September 2007 in Wojcieszyce near Szklarska Poręba. The conference was held in the place where the Cominform was probably established (however, that issue is debatable). Neither the date is accidental - it was 60 years since Stalin established the Cominform (Communist Information Bureau). The Cominform was an unsuccessful attempt to settle the situation of the communist movement and at the same time to make the policy of European countries of the forming Soviet bloc uniform. Parties of countries dominated by USSR as well as France and Italy joined the Cominform. At that time Andriej Żadanow delivered the famous speech about the two hostile parts of the world: the “imperialistic” and the “democratic”.

The aim of the conference was to present state-of-the-art in the field of the communist movement operation in the pivotal period of totalitarian system formation in Central and Eastern Europe. Furthermore, the conference was to serve the purpose of making a synthetic approach to those issues.

International Conference

THE COMMUNIST MOVEMENT, 1944 to 1956

PROGRAM

27 September 2007 (Thursday)

Session I – Communist Parties in Central and Eastern Europe in the Period of Seizure of Power from 1944 to 1948

Chair: Dr Pavel Žáček (Czech Republic)
Discussant: Prof. Andrzej Paczkowski (Poland)

1. Prof. Mark Kramer (USA) – Stalin and the Imposition of Communists Systems in East-Central Europe
2. Prof. Dennis Deletant (UK) – The Path to Power of the Romanian Communist Party and the Foundations of the Totalitarian State, 1944–1948
3. Dr Vasil Paraskevov (Bulgaria) – The Bulgarian Workers’ Party on the Road to One-Party Rule, 1944–1948
4. Dr László Borhi (Hungary) – The Communist Seizure of Power in Hungary, 1945–1948
5. Prof. Jerzy Eisler (Poland) – Two leaders: Bierut or Gomułka?
6. Doc. Jiři Kocian (Czech Republic) – The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia vis à vis East-Central Europe in 1945–1948
7. Dr Jerca Vodušek-Starič (Slovenia) – The Yugoslav Model of Seizure of Power (1944–1948) and the Cominform

Session II – Communist Parties in Central and Eastern Europe from 1949 to 1956

Chair: Dr János Tischler (Hungary)
Discussant: Dr Leszek Głuchowski (Canada)

1. Dr Daina Bleiere (Latvia) – Latvians in the Latvian Communist Party, 1944–1956
2. Dr Aleksander Srebrakowski (Poland) – The Communist Party of Lithuania, 1944–1956: Fellow Countrymen or Aliens?
3. Dr István Őtvős (Hungary) – Creating a Distance from the Popular Front: The Political Dimensions of the Rajk Trial
4. Dr Mario Kessler (Germany) – The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) as a Party of “New Type”
5. Dr Petr Blažek (Czech Republic) – The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, 1949–1956
6. Dr Ana Lalaj (Albania) – Albania and the Informbureau, 1947–1956

28 September 2007 (Friday)

Session III – Communist Parties in the West from 1944 to 1956

Chair: Dr Krzysztof Persak (Poland)
Discussant: Prof. Silvio Pons (Italy)

1. Mr. Matteo Lodevole (UK/Italy) – Communist Mass Mobilisation and Labour Strategies in France and Italy, 1944–1953
2. Dr Idesbald Goddeeris (Belgium) – Belgian Communists and the Eastern Bloc.
3. Dr José Faraldo (Spain) – From Guerrilla to Infiltration. The Spanish Communist Party in Exile and at Home, 1945–1950
4. Dr Wolfgang Mueller (Austria) – The Communist Party of Austria and the Soviet Policy
vis à vis Austria, 1944–1955
5. Dr John Haynes (USA) – The ‘Mental Comintern’ and the Self-Destructive Tactics of CPUSA, 1945–1958
6. Dr Herbert Romerstein (USA) – Soviet Power Projection and the Communist Party of the USA during the Cominform Era

Session IV – Internal Relations in the Worldwide Communist Movement from 1944 to 1956

Chair: Dr Bożena Szaynok (Poland)
Discussant: Dr Alexandr Stykalin (Russia)

1. Mr. August Grabski, Dr Urszula Ługowska (Poland) – International Jewish Communist Movement, 1944–1956
2. Mr. Aleksander Zivotic (Serbia) – Relations between the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and Bulgarian and Albanian Communist Parties, 1945–1948
3. Dr Andreas Hilger (Germany) – Asia as a Target of ‘International Communism’? Moscow vis à vis the Communist Party of India
4. Dr Andrei Lankov (Korea/Russia) – The Soviet Politburo Decisions on the Korea Issue, 1945–1950
5. Prof. Qiang Zhai (USA) – Chinese-Vietnamese Communist Relations, 1946–1956
6. Dr Nikolai Starikov (Russia) – Conspirativistic Mentality of the Cominform: Specific Political Mentality of the Cold War